A Royal Menagerie: Meissen Porcelain Animals (Getty Belief Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

“Heroic” is maybe the one phrase to explain the Meissen porcelain animals made for the Elector of Saxony, Frederick-Augustus. They have been commissioned in 1728 and modeled and executed by 1735. The nice dimension of the figures offered many technical difficulties in creation and firing. Their

mere completion in so many instances was itself a tour de drive, making it arguably essentially the most vital fee for porcelain executed in Europe.

Introduced listed here are the massive figures of animals from the gathering of Frederick-Augustus, presently on exhibition on the Getty Museum till January 2002. Frederick-Augustus had lengthy been a collector of Japanese and Chinese language porcelain. He created essentially the most formidable inside for porcelain

deliberate anyplace in Europe, the well-known Japanese Palace in Dresden. On the higher flooring was a gallery dedicated to Meissen porcelain, crammed with vases, nice dishes, and the animal figures displayed on this fantastically illustrated guide.